Spring on the Farm

Over the last month we have been busy fixing up the house, but it hasn’t been just a “This Old House” marathon. The animals keep us hopping too.

One afternoon, I saw our big dog Alamo chasing something in the pasture. I thought it was a little cottontail and went over to rescue it. Fortunately I had my camera with me.

Leila and Harper alert on something in the pasture. The sheep paid no attention at all.

Harper investigates.

It turned out to be a little armadillo!

Now even though this is the state animal of Texas, I have only seen a few in my lifetime – usually at dusk, digging around in some brush for insects. I have no idea why this one was active in the middle of the day, out in the middle of the open field.

Did you ever see such cute ears?

I successfully kept both dogs away from it, although they didn’t understand why I wouldn’t let them have fun with the little football. I tried to herd it back to the woods – the armadillo of course viewed me as just one more predator, and kept zig-zagging in any direction except towards the woods. Finally I got it to run into some brambles in the woods where it could be cool and sheltered. I hope it has a long and happy life and the dogs never find it again!

And, we now have ducks! And they are just as adorable as the armadillo. I have no idea what kind they are; we just got whatever the feed store had. We will just have to wait and see how their grown-up plumage turns out.

What handsome fellows. Or beautiful gals. I have no idea yet.

Soon they will get to try a bigger tub – and one day, the pond!

In the daytime I am letting them roam in the outside dog kennel, and swim in a plastic tub. They don’t really care to get out and explore, and they all want to stay together all the time, so I’m not too worried about them escaping. I am worried about hawks getting them though – the ducks have no defensive skills, they are literally “sitting ducks.” So I have piled up a bunch of chairs and buckets into a barricade, hoping the hawks will think it is too hard to maneuver through. I also have a fake turkey (which is sold as a decoy for bow hunters) mounted on the fence, because supposedly hawks are afraid of turkeys.

Why yes, I did build this myself. How did you guess?

I am worried about raccoons or snakes getting them at night, so for now, I just put their feed in a dog crate – they rush in and start eating – I close the crate and bring the whole thing into the house. When they see their feed coming, they start dancing around and peeping, and they will eat out of my hand! They are much more sociable than chickens, but they are also very messy.

I hope they will have a long and wonderful life of eating bugs and pond weeds, and I hope the hawks never find them!

We used to have a back door on the house facing East. The ducks would be found hunkered down on the warm concrete steps each morning………of course a good “hosing down” of the area was constantly needed!!!!!! Watch that first step!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!

Take any combination of chain link fence, chicken wire, kennel tarps, dog crates, lawn chairs, empty barrels, goat ropes, cargo nets, and bricks – scramble them all up, and drop them in some semblance of a straight line. Garnish with a turkey decoy. Continually scan the sky for hawks, and the ground for snakes. That ought to do it! 🙂

The pictures are great! I think you could make a wonderful children’s book about like on the farm – maybe a two or three books. You have enough information and pictures. Can’t wait for the next chapter.

Yes, I had quite a crush on Jim Fowler back when I was 8 or 9! We have had more wildlife here than I would have ever imagined – an otter, a beaver, red foxes, and coyotes. But nothing as exotic as kangaroos or water buffaloes yet – Jim can rest easy. 🙂

Oh the baby armadillo is so cute; yes, we’ve had several of the larger ones here but never seen a baby one. Isn’t it something that cute can grow up to be a senseless pest and destroy so much! Your ducks are cute too; it’ll be interesting to see the type of ducks they are once they mature some. I’m watching too for hawks as we just rescued a small 5# mix puppy (yorkie & ??); easy target for the hawks.

I didn’t know armadillos were destructive! What do they go after? Fortunately, there is not too much here that I am trying to protect – our vegetable garden is well fenced and I gave up on flowers after the cows ate them all.
Congratulations on your puppy? Is it an only dog? Or part of a group?